Anthony Malloy

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It went like this. Bert was sick last Friday night and off his food for the weekend, Rae was hit hard on Sunday and had Monday off work – she should have taken Tuesday off too – and at 10:30am on Monday morning I get the phone call from Phee’s school to come and pick her up as she was feeling ill, a point she proved by throwing up in the car on the way home. Three out of four in the Malloy family down for the count and as I hopped in to bed on Monday night I was quietly congratulating myself on my cast iron constitution and general all round robust health.

My my, how pride cometh before the fall. And the vomiting.

From 11:30pm to 7:00am. Constantly.

I’ve had two pieces of toast and one Sao in the past two days and while I’m starving I can’t face the thought of food. It’s odd to be craving something so much yet knowing I don’t want to touch it. I’m on the improve though, still battling the final stages of fever, aches and lethargy but after a day and a half I had to start up the PC and check my mail. Now that’s done it’s time to head back to bed and knock this thing on the head once and for all.

Remember Linda Blair in The Exorcist? No, not that scene, or that one – the one with the torrents of pea soup?

Welcome to the Malloy household.

Bert’s had it, Rae has it, Phee and I aren’t going near either of them without a full hazmat suit on. Maybe we should daub a huge ‘ER’ (for Excorist Re-enactment) on our front door to warn people off. To make sure I don’t succumb I’m thinking of sleeping in the cubby house tonight.

Here is my lovely picture of a non-train.

a quickr pickr post

Let me explain.

We live close to a railway line, very close – in summer when we have the curtains open we will be able to sit in bed on a Sunday morning and watch the occasional goods train, or The Overland, chug on by. The past few weekends we’ve had a steam train go past, a big ole black steam train with gloriously restored carriages behind it. We hear the mornful whistle and thirty seconds later the train steams on past.

The first week we thought ‘cool, a steam train’. The second week I thought ‘there it is again, I should get photo of that’ so last week I had the camera ready to go should it appear again. Come Saturday morning the whistle sounds, I grab the camera and run out the front, get set to snap a great pic and….nothing. I had left the battery in the charger.

Right. Today I was determined to get the picture. Battery in camera, card all but wiped and ears pealed. Woooohoooooo – the train! Grab the camera, out the back door, down the drive and….OH CRAP! I hadn’t unlocked the side gates. A “choo choo choo choo chooo” sound mocks me as I walk back inside, defeated by the Steam God once more.

Next week I’m camping out. I swear I’m going to get a picture of that bloody train if it’s the last thing I do.

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Oh dear god. What have I done. I’ve even infected my son – he’s standing there bopping along too and Rae, even though she can’t stop laughing, is grooving, as she should ’cause it’s her fault. Earlier today she asked me to download some terrible 1970s song for Jeans For Genes Day at her work tomorrow and while I was sourcing that I stumbled across a, I hesitate to use the world classic so how about, anti-classic. ‘Paloma Blanca’ by The George Baker Selection is now on my pc & pod.

All together now “oooooh la paloma blanca, I’m just a bird in the sky, over the mountains I fly, no one can take my freedom away….”

I can’t believe the same people did ‘Little Green Bag’. Let’s see Quentin Tarantino do something groovy with Blanca in his next flick. Now there’s a cinematic challenge.

I was tempting fate the other day when I mentioned that six hours without net access was too much for me – last night I had no net at all. It’s back on this morning  so I can leave for work after the shaking stops.

Argh, semester 2 of study and I’m already behind thanks to my text books not being in stock. They emailed me today to let me know the books were in the post and should turn up so I guess I know what I’m doing this weekend and what’s more it’s a perfect excuse not to have to go to the footy to watch my Tigers get thumped by Rae’s Doggies.

That reminds me, it’s three days since the Tigers were thumped by my mum’s (and Frank’s too) team, I really should be man enough to pick up the phone and give her a call.

I had a day off today so I grabbed my laptop and headed down the peninsula to visit some people who needed some IT help. An easy drive, a good lunch, pleasant afternoon over looking the bay as showers rolled in and out and then a drive back home in brilliant sunshine. Not a bad way to spend the day although I have felt the stirrings of another obsession beginning to build. I think before too long I’m going to start ‘needing’ a broadband wireless modem for my laptop. Six hours without net access is just too long for this net junkie.

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What to do when your side is thumped by over 100 points? Have a beer and take some pictures. There’s always next year.

a quickr pickr post